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  • 20 hours ago
ESP La Luna del Alfa Roto
Transcript
00:03I threw my body into the woods, no funeral, no grave, just crows, and that was the second
00:08time I died for him.
00:09In my world, being blind is a defect.
00:12Without a wolf, I'm a mother.
00:13I am in a mother, at the very bottom of the pack, I'm a mother.
00:16No strength, no shifting, no healing.
00:19A normal wolf looks dead, heals and moves.
00:23Give me a paper cut, and I'll bleed for days, but I have something no one needs to do.
00:28I don't see faces, I see soles of jealousy, toxic green, peaked, de-oily black.
00:34In my last life, I used it to build a king, Lucian, a forgotten fifth son.
00:39I picked him, I made him, I put him on the throne.
00:42In the day my sister Celeste died, he grabbed my jaw so hard I heard it crack, forced a wolf's
00:49vein tincture down my throat.
00:51You blind freak, you knew I never wanted you.
00:54Celeste should have been mine from the start.
00:56And because of you, she ended up with Marcus.
00:59They tortured her to death.
01:01It was your fault.
01:04I died in agony.
01:06He gave Celeste's corpse a royal burial.
01:09He gave me the woods.
01:11His heart, his feet, it was so consuming it dragged me right back to his death.
01:16It opened my eyes.
01:18Seventeen again.
01:20Night, he made him out.
01:22Lucian walked straight past me and took Celeste's hand, like he was afraid someone might stop him.
01:27The bastard came back too, and he remembered everything.
01:30He is terrified I'll choose him again.
01:32Honestly, I couldn't care less.
01:33I swept my blind gaze across the back of the room.
01:36In a sea of dark, rotten salt.
01:39My soul so pure it glowed like liquid gold.
01:42The man in the wheelchair.
01:43True album.
01:45I choose Celeste as my mate.
01:48Lucian's voice cracked through the hall like a whip.
01:50She is my one and only Luna.
01:52He walked toward my sister with eyes full of a tenderness I knew was performance.
01:56The room went silent.
01:57Then the whispers hit me like a wall.
01:59No heir in their right mind would want her.
02:01A blind Omega who couldn't even shift?
02:04What a joke.
02:05Why is she even here?
02:07Trash like her should be in the kitchen, not at a mating ball.
02:12I am an Alpha's daughter born blind.
02:14When I came up there to my wolf, I had a world full of my teeth and claws.
02:19That is not just weakness.
02:20That is a death sentence.
02:22Being wolf-less, that makes you a joke.
02:25My sister Celeste is the golden child.
02:27Born with a siren song.
02:30A voice that can calm even the most violent Alpha in the world.
02:34The family treats her like a goddess.
02:35They treat me like a mistake they can't take back.
02:39Rushing dropped to one knee in front of her.
02:42Accept my mark Celeste.
02:44I will make you the most powerful woman alive.
02:47And as he spoke, he threw one look back at me.
02:50Not an apology.
02:51A warning.
02:52He thinks he can take the throne without me this time.
02:55He thinks I was what held him back.
02:57He has no idea what he just threw away.
03:00I didn't awaken a wolf in my teenage age.
03:02I got something much more dangerous.
03:04A soul ride.
03:08Jealousy is toxic green.
03:10Hate is a bottomless black.
03:12Love is pink.
03:13And the deeper the feeling, the darker it burns.
03:16In my last life, I kept him alive with this.
03:20I spotted assassins before they moved.
03:22I told him who to trust, who to kill.
03:24This time, I am going to let him have exactly what he wanted, and watch him realize too late that
03:30he's at me, he is nothing.
03:32And I really hope, for his sake, he doesn't end up crawling back to me, begging for a mercy on
03:38the one at home.
03:39The moment Lucian's announcement landed, every eye in the room found me, I'm just a blind girl.
03:46I'm not worthy of a man like Lucian.
03:48I'm not worthy of a man like Lucian.
03:48Celelsta is the perfect match for him.
03:50At least you know your place.
03:52He stepped closer.
03:53An Omega with no wolf?
03:55I wouldn't choose you if you were the last woman breathing.
03:59Not even if you crawl to me on your knees.
04:01My mother Marilyn made a sound beside me, a sharpened hair, like she was about to say something she shouldn't.
04:07I squeezed her hand.
04:08She went quiet.
04:09I swept the room with my soul on her.
04:12Marcus, murky charcoal, cruel underneath the surface.
04:15The other airs, muddy swirls of greed and want.
04:18In my last life, I chose Lucian because his soul looked cleaner than anyone else's in the room.
04:23It was a mask.
04:24I didn't see what was underneath until the day he choked me, a rotten, pink purple breath.
04:29I didn't just hate what it was.
04:31I hated her.
04:32I was blind in my last life in more ways than one.
04:35Never again, Celeste glided toward me.
04:37Face arranged into the perfect picture of a loving older sister.
04:41Don't be sad.
04:42Go ahead.
04:43I'll let you have whoever you want.
04:46Her soul was turning, toxic green, edge to edge.
04:49Pure jealousy, barely holding its shape.
04:52Since no one's going to claim you anyway, you can always beg me for work.
04:56Celeste will need a personal maid.
04:58With CSF's smitchy floors, scrubbing floors all a wolfless Omega is good for.
05:02I didn't laugh.
05:03I didn't even bother.
05:04None of them were worth the energy.
05:06And then, the sound of wheels.
05:09The chatter died.
05:10Then the room shifted.
05:12Kyle Ravenscroft had arrived.
05:15Uninvited.
05:16Unannounced.
05:17And completely unmoved by the spectacle.
05:19He sat in that wheelchair like a predator at rest.
05:22And then I saw.
05:24My breath caught.
05:25His soul was gold.
05:26Pure.
05:27Shimmering.
05:28Blinding gold.
05:29The mark of the moon goddess herself.
05:31The mark of a true king.
05:34I clenched my fists so hard my nails broke the skin.
05:37Last life.
05:38I picked the wrong man.
05:40I defied the moon goddess.
05:42Put a monster on the throne.
05:43And everyone paid for it.
05:45Not this time.
05:47I stood up.
05:48I walked past Lucian without a glance.
05:50Past every arrogant alpha heir in the room.
05:52I stopped in front of Kyle's wheelchair.
05:55I choose him.
05:56The hall went dead silent.
05:58Then it exploded.
06:00Life died.
06:01From every direction.
06:02All it was.
06:03The blind girl and the cripple.
06:06Neither of you has a wolf.
06:08You really are a perfect match.
06:12Zaya.
06:14You can't see.
06:15You don't understand.
06:17He's in a wheelchair.
06:19She glanced at the crowd.
06:21Milking every second of it.
06:23I'll pretend I didn't hear that.
06:26Choose again.
06:27And if you truly can't find an alpha willing to have you.
06:31You're welcome to follow our caravan.
06:33Serve Lucian and me.
06:36At least you won't go hungry.
06:38I'm not anyone's servant.
06:40And I'm not a stray you take in out of pity.
06:43Kyle hadn't said a word through any of it.
06:45He just waved his chair forward until he was right in front of me.
06:48He took my hand.
06:49His palm was large and rough.
06:52Thick with calluses.
06:53The kind you only get from him is of hard use.
06:59He took my hand and guided it to his knee.
07:02No flinching.
07:03No excuses.
07:05If he was lying.
07:06He didn't want pity for it.
07:07I left my hand there.
07:09I could feel the heat of him through the fabric intense.
07:12Alive.
07:13Then a jolt.
07:14It shot through my fingertips.
07:16Raced up my arm.
07:17And hit my chest like a beast.
07:19This wasn't the soul arm.
07:21It was something else entirely.
07:22My blood was screaming.
07:24I don't have a wolf.
07:26I was never supposed to feel a mate moment.
07:29But there it was.
07:32Kyle's whole body locked up.
07:34I looked into his soul.
07:36Warm pain threading through shimmering gold.
07:38I leaned in close and smiled.
07:40I can't fix you next.
07:42Lucian's face went ugly.
07:43The mating ball isn't over.
07:46And you're out here making promises you can't keep?
07:49If you fail to heal him, the Alpha Council will have your head.
07:52Can you actually do it?
07:54I didn't answer right away.
07:55I let my fingers trail slowly along this tinked flag.
07:59I can.
08:00But it'll require a very specific kind of contact.
08:04He understood immediately.
08:05The tips of his ears went red.
08:07He turned his head away.
08:09Couldn't quite bring himself to look at me.
08:11In my peripheral vision, Lucian's soul ignited.
08:15A roaring wall of green fire.
08:17Jealousy.
08:18A cold laugh rose in my chest.
08:20Jealous of what?
08:21Exactly, Lucian.
08:22You're the one who poured poison down my throat.
08:25The moment I stepped outside the hall, the world tilted.
08:28White hot pain detonated behind my eyes.
08:33Like something was being driven through my skull from the inside.
08:36That is the past.
08:38Every time I used a full eye on that many people at once, I was trying.
08:41I pressed my freezing fingers to my temples.
08:44The cold always came after.
08:46After the ball, Lucian got to work.
08:48He pulled up everything from our past life.
08:50Her favorite flowers.
08:52Her secret hiding spots.
08:54Every word she'd been waiting her whole life to hear.
08:56He played her like he'd been practicing for years.
09:00That same day, a mating contract arrived at my door on heavy old parchment.
09:06I accept you as my mate.
09:08I will hold and protect you in this life and the next.
09:11Not even death will part us.
09:13The handwriting was deep and certain.
09:15No hesitation in a single stroke.
09:17It felt exactly like him.
09:19Both weddings were set for the same morning.
09:21The night before, Celeste walked into my room like she owned it.
09:25She didn't knock.
09:26Her maid tossed something at my feet.
09:27A tattered gray shawl.
09:29A kind worn by the lowest ranking omegas.
09:33A mark of total submission.
09:35You're a blind freak, Zara.
09:41No real alpha will ever claim you.
09:43She leaned in, voice honeyed and vicious at the same time.
09:48Lucian and I are being generous.
09:50We're keeping you on as a servant.
09:53But on the day of the ceremony, no carriage for you.
09:57You'll wear that and walk behind the caravan.
10:00Servant's lentils.
10:01Don't embarrass us.
10:02The morning came.
10:03I left the shawl on the floor where it landed.
10:06I put on the dress Kyle had sent instead.
10:09White silk, thousands of diamonds sewn into the fabric.
10:12Small enough to look like starlight.
10:15At the estate gate, two carriages waited.
10:18One was extraordinary.
10:20Draped in thumb-sized pearls.
10:22Built like a throne that happened to have wheels.
10:25The other was the final standard work.
10:27Nothing am I.
10:30The lest didn't hesitate for a second.
10:33She walked straight to the pearl carriage and stepped inside.
10:38The head guard turned.
10:39His expression didn't waver.
10:42You're in the wrong carriage.
10:44This was commissioned by Alpha Kyle for his Luna and no one else.
10:49He didn't get her time to argue.
10:50The guards took her by the arms and went to bed.
10:53She caught her heel on her skirt and went down hard for her face into the dirt.
10:59It's Zara!
11:00Lucian arrived just in time to see it.
11:02Celeste scrambled up and threw herself at him, already crying.
11:09It's Zara!
11:10She planned this!
11:13She can't stand that I'm the one becoming a Luna!
11:16She turned to the crowd gathering around her, eyes glistening.
11:20Please, don't hate her.
11:22She's struggling.
11:24I know we're in love, Lucian.
11:26But I begged you to keep her safe.
11:29I pleaded for months just so she could be our servant and I not starve on the street.
11:35She's a blind Omega.
11:37She should be grateful anyone even bothered to take her in.
11:40To pull a strunt like this on her sister's wedding day?
11:43It's thetic.
11:44The crowd was vicious.
11:45They always are when they smell wetness.
11:48Lucian's soul was drowning in black.
11:50Thick and suffocating.
11:52Ink dark.
11:53He pulled Celeste against his chest and turned on me.
11:56You're an Omega, Zara.
11:59You have no right to wear white.
12:02Take that dress off right now or I'll shred it off your back myself!
12:07Celeste buried her face in his chest.
12:09But I could see her soul.
12:11She was smirking.
12:14Lucian, you don't have me watching the back this time.
12:17What's coming for you tonight isn't a wedding.
12:21It's a funeral.
12:24It's the rest we foiled like I'd struck her.
12:27How can you curse him like that?
12:29Just because he didn't choose you?
12:31You dare curse an Alpha heir!
12:35Guards!
12:36Seize her!
12:38The soldiers started moving in.
12:40Think carefully.
12:42You're laying a hand on Alpha Kyle's mate.
12:45Make sure that's a consequence you're ready to live with.
12:48Lucian laughed.
12:49Jagged.
12:49Ugly.
12:50Kyle, the cripple isn't even here.
12:53Probably hiding in his chambers, too embarrassed to show his face.
12:56He's using you for sport, Zara.
12:58Nothing more.
12:59He stepped forward, close enough that his shadow fell over me.
13:02Neil.
13:03Beg Celeste's forgiveness.
13:06And maybe, maybe, I'll still find a use for you.
13:09Then a voice cut through everything.
13:11Who is threatening my mate?
13:12The crowd squeaked.
13:13Kyle moved through them like they weren't there.
13:15Sharp black suit.
13:17Not a single piece of his voice.
13:18Even seated.
13:19His presence was suffocating.
13:21The moment he appeared, the street went silent.
13:23Beside him, Lucian suddenly looked like a boy wearing his arms.
13:29Kyle came straight to me.
13:30He took my hand and folded it inside his large, warm, unhurried.
13:36Then he looked up.
13:38His eyes fixed on Lucian with a blade finding its mark.
13:42Let's try that again.
13:43Who was it that told my mate?
13:45The temperature in the street seemed to drop.
13:48No one walked.
13:49No one breathed.
13:50He didn't shout.
13:52Didn't signal his men.
13:53He just watched Lucian the way a predator watches something it has already decided to deal with later.
13:58I'll remember that.
14:00I'm an alpha heir, same as you.
14:02Who the hell do you think you are?
14:04Who the hell do you think you are?
14:06A forgotten fifth son?
14:07Trying to give orders to my mate.
14:10You're not a rival, Lucian.
14:12You're a fit note.
14:13The color drained from Lucian's face.
14:16This isn't over.
14:17Low and mean.
14:18You'll both regret tonight.
14:21I gave you a chance, Zara.
14:23When you come crawling back, and you will, don't expect mercy.
14:28I looked at his soul, muddy feeling it.
14:31Murky and small.
14:32He genuinely believes he is the chosen one.
14:34He thinks the throne is already his, and that I was just dead weight holding him back.
14:38He has no idea what is waiting for him.
14:40Without me clearing his path, he won't last the season.
14:44He'll be lucky to still be breathing by the time the leaves turn.
14:48Oh, our first night as mates was quiet.
14:50Just the two of us, and the fire crackling low between us.
14:54We shared whiskey, amber, and slow burning on the way down.
15:00I could feel his eyes, heavy and silver warm against my skin.
15:04My pulse wouldn't settle.
15:05Even sitting across from me in that chair, his presence filled the entire room.
15:10You said you could fix my legs.
15:14How?
15:16Help me with something first.
15:19I've never seen this room.
15:22Describe it to me.
15:24Then he started talking.
15:26The fires glow.
15:27The oil paintings.
15:29He told me their textures, not just their subjects.
15:32The velvet curtains.
15:33Deep and heavy.
15:34On the shelf above the nightstand, there's an old book.
15:40The cover is faded.
15:42My hand stilled around the glass.
15:44That shelf was high, nearly at the ceiling.
15:47From a wheelchair, the top of that book was completely out of sight.
15:51There was no way he could know the cover was faded.
15:53I didn't say a word.
15:55I just took another sip and filed that detail away somewhere.
15:58I wouldn't forget it.
15:59I stood up with my glass in hand, then let it slip.
16:04It hit the carpet with a dull thud and rolled toward the sofa.
16:09Kyle's body moved for a second.
16:10He was about to stand.
16:12Then he caught himself and settled back into the leather as if nothing had happened.
16:16But I felt it.
16:17That reflex was all the confirmation I needed.
16:20I didn't say anything.
16:22Not yet.
16:23Here's one more way to be sure.
16:27I stepped in close.
16:29And I strapped.
16:30My heart was slamming.
16:31I ignored it.
16:34I raised my hand and let my fingertips trace from his jaw down to his chest.
16:39Hard as stone beneath the shirt.
16:41Not the body of a man who hadn't used his legs in seven years.
16:44I looked into his soul.
16:46A storm deep crimson.
16:48Soft pink.
16:49Something more tender than he'd admit.
16:51And threading through both.
16:52A sharp streak of dark green panic.
16:55He knew I was getting close.
16:57I leaned down.
17:03My lips barely grazed the corner of his mouth.
17:06Not a kiss.
17:07A question.
17:08His breathing came apart.
17:10And then I took his hand and pressed his palm flat against my chest.
17:14The silk between us was nothing.
17:16My face was burning.
17:17Because in that moment, his body gave me the most honest answer he had.
17:22His body reacted before his mind could stop it.
17:25I felt the shift in his balance.
17:28The sudden brace through his thighs.
17:30The instinctive drive upward.
17:32A man who hadn't reached his legs in seven years wouldn't move like that.
17:36I pulled back just enough.
17:37Let the smile come slowly.
17:39Your legs are fine.
17:41That much, I know.
17:42Kyle closed his eyes.
17:44His throat moved as he swallowed.
17:46Then he stood up.
17:47One hand stayed at my waist.
17:49The other still pressed against my chest.
17:52He lifted me and I felt just how much of him there was.
17:55Nearly six foot long.
17:57All of it muscled.
17:58My whole world was suddenly just him.
18:00How did you know?
18:02I just smiled and gave him something vague enough to pass.
18:05He set me down gently on the edge of the bed.
18:08Then stepped back.
18:09The hand that had touched my chest was shaking.
18:12I'm sorry, I shouldn't have...
18:13Don't.
18:14I'm the one who put your hand there.
18:16He looked at me for a long moment.
18:18He laughed.
18:19A real laugh.
18:21Warm and unguarded.
18:22Like seven years of tension finally giving way.
18:25Seven years.
18:26Seven years fooling everyone.
18:28The whole damn world.
18:31And my blind mate catches me on the very first night.
18:34We didn't go any further that night.
18:35We ended up on the rug in front of the fire.
18:38The bottle of whiskey between us.
18:39And we just...
18:41Talked.
18:42He told me abirly.
18:43It was the only way to stay alive.
18:45I told him about Lucian.
18:47All of it.
18:48What he was underneath.
18:50I didn't choose you because I had no other options.
18:53I chose you because you were the only one worth choosing.
18:57I watched his soul begin to shift.
19:00The gold bleeding slowly into a deep and glowing lake.
19:04Late into the night, he came back.
19:07The splitting pain behind my temples.
19:09Like an axe working its way through the bone.
19:11I tried to keep my hands still.
19:13They were shaking anyway.
19:15Kyle stopped mid-sentence.
19:17Your head.
19:17Before I could deflect, his thumbs were already at my temples.
19:22The pressure.
19:23Exact like he'd mapped the pain before he touched it.
19:26My mother used to get them.
19:27I've known what to do since I was a boy.
19:29The pain didn't ease.
19:31It vanished.
19:32We shared the same bed.
19:33His arm lay heavy and warm across my waist.
19:36My head settled against his chest.
19:38I listened to his heartbeat through my soul eye.
19:41I watched his soul settle.
19:43The gold softening, deepening into a rich and quiet pink.
19:46For the first time in two lifetimes, I felt safe.
19:49She was letting me smile on her heart.
19:51In my last life, a maid tried to spike his wine with wolf's vein.
19:55I caught her before she could get close.
19:57I read the murder in her soul.
19:59Swapped the glasses.
20:00Had her detained before he'd taken a single seat.
20:03This time, I did nothing.
20:05Celeste couldn't notice.
20:06She wouldn't know a threat if it sat down beside her and introduced itself.
20:10The next morning, Kyle and I arrived at the Alpha King's estate.
20:14No sign of Lucian.
20:16No sign of Celeste.
20:17The corridors were alive with hushed, urgent voices.
20:20The thing there was poisoned in his own chambers.
20:23He hasn't wakened.
20:24The heave.
20:24When to stop it.
20:26The carriage had barely rolled to a stop when Celeste appeared at the gates.
20:30She looked like she hadn't slept in the days.
20:32Zara!
20:33You poisoned him!
20:36Give me the antidote right now!
20:39I felt the temperature inside the carriage shift.
20:41Kyle went very still beside me.
20:43I placed a hand on his arm.
20:45I've got this.
20:47I leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.
20:50Then I stepped out into the morning air.
20:53Antidote?
20:54I don't have one.
20:56Whatever happened to Lucian has nothing to do with me.
21:00Liar!
21:02Then how did you know he'd be dying on his wedding night?
21:05I tilted my head.
21:08That's a serious accusation.
21:10Where's your proof?
21:12Did you catch the killer?
21:14Did you find the poison?
21:15I already knew she hadn't.
21:17The spy Marcus sent was a professional.
21:19Without my soul eye, she was a ghost.
21:22By now she was likely across the border, untouchable.
21:25Celeste stood there, mouth open, nothing coming out.
21:28If you keep causing a scene on my land, my warriors will remove you.
21:35Her eyes dropped to my neck.
21:36She saw the red mark Kyle had left there.
21:39You actually slept with him?
21:42A blind girl and a broken man?
21:44I suppose trash finds its own level.
21:46I suppose trash finds its own level.
21:48I thought about last night, the fire, the whiskey.
21:51The long silence after he finally stood up and I felt the full weight of him for the first time.
21:55Kyle wasn't broken. He was 10,000 times the man Lucian would ever be.
21:59I laughed.
22:02What is so funny?
22:04I stopped, looked at her. We're close enough to it.
22:06I'm laughing at how blind you are.
22:08Lucian is going to die.
22:11And when he goes down, he'll take you with him.
22:14If you want to survive what's coming, sever the bond now, while you still can.
22:19That was it for her.
22:20She swung at my face.
22:22Wide, furious, telegraphed from a mile away.
22:25I shifted my weight and stepped aside.
22:27She hit nothing but air.
22:28The momentum carried her forward and she went down hard, palms and knees in the dirt.
22:32I looked down at her.
22:33Remember this?
22:35Because the next time you raise a hand to me, I won't step aside.
22:38She stared up at me from the ground, trembling.
22:40For the first time in her life, she was actually afraid of me.
22:43The blind girl she used to torment wasn't there anymore.
22:46Someone else had taken her place.
22:49Kyle was waiting when I stepped back into the carriage.
22:52He just watched me with those gray eyes.
22:54And in them, not worry, not pity, admiration.
22:57He trusted me to handle my own affairs.
22:59That respect landed heavier than any shield he could have raised.
23:02He turned to his lead god and spoke well.
23:04No one from Lucian's pack crosses onto my land again.
23:08For any reason.
23:10Ever.
23:13After Celeste was escorted out, we turned to the business of leaving.
23:17We were heading for Thorn Harbor.
23:18The courtyard filled with people and supplies controlled chaos.
23:22And through all of it, my soul eye found a single target.
23:25A guard named Vaughn.
23:26His soul was a muddy, dangerous gray.
23:28I leaned close to Kyle's ear.
23:30Who is that man?
23:33Vaughn.
23:34He's been with me since I was 15.
23:36Saved my life twice.
23:37I pulled back and looked at him.
23:39Kyle, do you trust me?
23:41His soul flushed deep and darkly, all at once.
23:44You're my mate.
23:45Of course I do.
23:46He's a traitor.
23:48We changed the route to Thorn Harbor.
23:50And we tell no one.
23:52In my last night, this was where it ended with Kyle.
23:55Ambushed on the road to the harbor.
23:57Wounds that never healed.
23:59He died defending the city walls.
24:01I finished speaking.
24:02Let my lips brush his cheek.
24:04Kyle's arm came around my waist immediately.
24:07Pulling me in.
24:08Across the yard, I felt Vaughn watching us.
24:11He clocked how close we were and looked very fast.
24:14Kyle pressed his face into the curve of my neck.
24:16His breath was warm against my skin.
24:18Are you trying to fix my legs again?
24:21Because I'm happy to wait until tonight.
24:23Or we could start now.
24:25The next morning, Vaughn was gone.
24:27Kyle sat beside me at breakfast.
24:29Cutting my steak into careful pieces without being asked.
24:32You were right.
24:34Vaughn was Marcus's man.
24:36Buried so deep, I never suspected him once in seven years.
24:40It took some...
24:43Persuasion to get him to talk.
24:46He looked at me.
24:47How did you know, Zara?
24:49I looked into his soul, golden pink.
24:51Wound together.
24:52No suspicion.
24:53No fear.
24:54Lucky guess.
24:55The words were barely out when the pain hit.
24:58White.
24:58Hot behind both temples at once.
25:00My hand went to my head before I could stop it.
25:03Kyle didn't say a word.
25:04He just moved his chair flush against mine.
25:06Un in hand kept cutting my food.
25:08The other reached up and wrapped around the back of my neck.
25:10The pain dissolved.
25:11He has stopped asking why it happens.
25:14He just makes sure he is there when it does.
25:16Thorn Harbor.
25:17Kyle's territory.
25:18The land was rough.
25:20Resources thin.
25:21The kind of place the Alpha Council never bothered to look at twice.
25:25The wolves here were loyal to Kyle.
25:28The way wolves are loyal to someone they've chosen.
25:30Out of true devotion.
25:32When I went to the market, they called me Luna and refused my coin.
25:35Every stall, every vendor.
25:37I had to set the money down and walk away before they touch it.
25:41I came back to the estate breathless.
25:43And my maid watched me come through the door.
25:47The Luna is blind.
25:48But she moves faster than any soldier I've trained with.
25:53Kyle heard her.
25:54That night, his fingers found the edges of my eyes.
25:58Zara.
26:00Is it really just...
26:02Nothing?
26:03I nodded.
26:04He pulled me in against his chest and held me there.
26:08It doesn't matter.
26:09I'll be your eyes.
26:10Every sunrise.
26:11Every star.
26:13Whatever you want to see, I'll find the words for it.
26:15I watched his soul through all of it.
26:18The gold was shifting, becoming something warmer, deeper.
26:21The more time we spent together, the deeper the gold grew.
26:24Every shared meal.
26:25Every quiet evening beside him.
26:27It only became richer.
26:28But then something strange started happening.
26:31When I was away from him, even briefly, I got restless.
26:33Not just missing him.
26:34It was physical.
26:35A deep, pulling ache I couldn't reason away.
26:37The further I walked, the worse it pulled.
26:39Until it hurt.
26:40I told myself it was the intensity of a new bond.
26:42But I knew that wasn't it.
26:44I don't have a wolf.
26:45I was never supposed to feel this.
26:47That night when he kissed me, his soul shifted into something I'd never seen before.
26:51A pink so saturated and alive.
26:53It looked like the first day of spring breaking open all at once.
26:57The most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
26:59It didn't last.
27:00The next morning, a piece of encrypted intelligence arrived.
27:03Lucian is awake.
27:04But the damage is permanent.
27:06Intermittent mania.
27:07He has lost control of his wolf.
27:08A slow smile touched my lips.
27:10This was just the beginning of what was coming for him.
27:12But then, the catch.
27:13The Alpha Council had issued a mandatory summons.
27:16Marcus was hosting a banquet.
27:18Every heir was required to attend.
27:19No exceptions.
27:20Kyle had no choice.
27:22We were going back.
27:23Marcus' estate reeked of bad intentions before we even stepped inside.
27:26I swept the ballroom with my soul eye the moment we crossed the threshold.
27:30Oily green for greed.
27:31Thick in every corner of the room.
27:33A deep, sickening crimson for lust.
27:35And underneath all of it, something flat and purposeful that made my skin crawl.
27:39I found Kyle's hand under the table and held it.
27:42Don't eat.
27:42Don't touch the wall.
27:43In my last life, this banquet ended in blood.
27:46Their souls were a flat, professional gray.
27:48The color of people who had killed before and slept just fine after.
27:52Last time, when the blades came out, I didn't think.
27:54I just threw myself in front of Lucian and took a poison silver dagger to the rips.
27:59Carried that scar for years.
28:00Lance, when Lucian was already king, I mentioned it.
28:03He looked at me with something close to boredom.
28:06Protecting your mate is your duty, Zara.
28:08You're already Luna.
28:09What more do you want?
28:11I don't make the same mistakes twice.
28:12It happened fast.
28:13The three dancers reached into their silks.
28:16Short blades.
28:17Jagged.
28:17Silver.
28:18And they lunged.
28:19Kyle moved before I could blink.
28:21He didn't care about the secret anymore.
28:24He came half out of his chair.
28:26One arm sweeping me behind him.
28:28And his guards materialized from the dark like they'd been part of the shadows all along.
28:32A wall of bodies between us and everything.
28:34We were safe.
28:35I looked past them toward Lucian.
28:37No one moved to cover him.
28:39The moment the first blade flashed, Celeste screamed and ran.
28:42Straight for the exit, I didn't get back for us.
28:45Lucian was surrounded.
28:46A silver dagger, soaked in concentrated wolfsbane.
28:50Buried itself into his thigh.
28:52Dark blood hit the floor.
28:54He went down hard, gasping.
28:56Through the screaming, the overturned chairs.
28:58The crush of bodies trying to flee.
29:01His eyes found mine.
29:02He was begging.
29:04His soul was a wreck.
29:05Terror and pain and underneath it all.
29:08A dark green tide of regret.
29:10I held his face.
29:12Kept my face completely still.
29:14Didn't move a single muscle.
29:15I am blind, after all.
29:17I can't see a thing.
29:18I didn't make it two steps into the carriage.
29:21The spike hit the moment the door closed.
29:23Red hot.
29:23Straight through the center of my skull.
29:25It was the worst backlash I'd ever suffered.
29:28I scanned the entire ballroom.
29:29Every soul.
29:30Every shadow.
29:31Every blade before they struck.
29:33It cost me everything.
29:35The world went black.
29:36My knees folded.
29:38Kyle caught me before I hit the floor.
29:39His arms locked around my waist like armor, pulling me hard against his chest.
29:44Zara.
29:45I'd never heard that in his voice before.
29:47Fear.
29:48My head.
29:48It was all I could get out.
29:50He didn't wait.
29:50He pulled me in against him and pressed both palms to my temples.
29:54And something happened that I still can't explain.
29:56It wasn't just pressure.
29:58It wasn't just warmth.
29:59It felt like a hand reaching through the pain and pulling it out from the root.
30:02Gone completely.
30:03In seconds.
30:04I lay against his chest, dazed.
30:07Listening to his heart pound.
30:08Why does his touch do that?
30:10This isn't comfort.
30:11This is something older.
30:12Something that runs deeper than either of us understands.
30:15And it is starting to frighten me.
30:17While I recovered in Kyle's arms.
30:19This one was learning what that blade actually felt like.
30:22The wolf's vein on those daggers was pure.
30:24It doesn't just bleed.
30:25It destroys whatever the body would normally heal.
30:28It shredded his body's ability to heal from the inside out.
30:31In my last life, I took that blade from him.
30:33I felt the silver eat into my flesh.
30:35Felt the poison dissolve everything I had.
30:38I survived it barely.
30:39And he never once mentioned it again.
30:41He treated my body like a shield he was entitled to stand behind.
30:44This time he got to find out what it actually costs.
30:47The healers couldn't do a thing.
30:49The damage was permanent.
30:50Lucian would never walk again.
30:52The man who spent his whole life looking down at everyone from a great height
30:55is never going to stand again.
30:57The intelligence reports kept arriving.
30:59One after another, like a slow collapse.
31:01Lucian confirmed permanently disabled.
31:05Celeste began her exit strategy the moment he lost his strife.
31:09She spent months petitioning the Alpha Council to dissolve their bond.
31:13Six months later, the Alpha King had seen enough.
31:16He stripped Lucian of his inheritance.
31:18No title.
31:19No claim.
31:20No future.
31:21In the werewolf world, no one pledges their sword to a man who can't lead from the front.
31:25In our last life, Lucian thought seizing the throne was simply a matter of wanting it badly enough.
31:31He had no idea what was actually holding him.
31:34He thought those allies followed him by choice.
31:37I made sure they were worthy long before they ever pledged themselves.
31:41The traitors he feared never had the chance to strike.
31:44I silenced them first, and the commanders he trusted with his army were placed there by my hand, one by
31:50one paid for in blood.
31:52Without me, he couldn't have held a border crossing, let alone the floor.
31:57Celeste didn't mind.
31:59She stripped his estate clean.
32:01Jewelry.
32:01Gold.
32:02Every coin she could find.
32:04Then she was gone.
32:05She went back to Marcus, but the terms had changed.
32:08He didn't want a Luna this time.
32:10He took her as a mistress.
32:12I ran into her yesterday.
32:13A high-end perfume shop near the harbor.
32:16I was holding a bottle, a rare blend, when she reached over and plucked it straight out of my hand.
32:21I'll take all of these, she told the clerk.
32:24She was draped in diamonds.
32:26Her soul was the same toxic green as always been.
32:29She looked me over.
32:30Oh, Zara, she said.
32:32Perfume seems a bit pointless for you, doesn't it?
32:34She leaned in.
32:36Expensive wine on her breath.
32:37It's not as if your man can stand up to get close enough to smell it.
32:41A little gasp.
32:42A hand over her mouth.
32:44Eyes wide with performed regret.
32:46That was awful of me.
32:48You don't mind, do you?
32:49I smiled.
32:50Not at all.
32:51I said, take them all.
32:53The clerk looked baffled.
32:55I didn't explain.
32:56There is no point arguing with a woman who is already walking toward her own end.
33:01She just doesn't know the road she is on yet.
33:03It was late.
33:04Thorn Harbor was in a hard rain.
33:06My headguard appeared in the doorway.
33:09His face tight.
33:10Lupien is at the front gate, Luna.
33:12He has been dragging himself through the mud for the better part of an hour.
33:16He won't leave.
33:17I walked out to the entrance and looked through the iron bars.
33:21He was there, soaked in the air.
33:23Shaking, coated in the filth, and rolling.
33:25When he saw me, something desperate ignited in his eyes.
33:29He lurched forward.
33:30And the garlic spilled him back.
33:32He went down into the prison mud.
33:34Why?
33:35The word tore out of him like it had been caught on something.
33:38Zara, tell me.
33:39In the last life, you always knew what was coming.
33:43I thought if a blind girl could build a kingdom for me, then all I had to do was take
33:47the credit.
33:48So why did I lose everything?
33:49He started screaming, slamming his fists against his own useless legs.
33:53The sound of it got swallowed up by the thunder.
33:56When he finally ran out of breath, he looked up at me.
33:59He looked small.
34:01The arrogance was gone.
34:02What was left underneath wasn't much.
34:04Zara.
34:05Like he said, quiet enough.
34:07His voice doing something approximating humility.
34:10I made a mistake.
34:12Come back.
34:14Come back.
34:17The Luna title, it's yours.
34:19Truly, this time, we can rebuild.
34:22Together.
34:23Like before.
34:24We can take it all back.
34:25I looked at his soul, thick, oily green, bottomless with it.
34:30He wasn't performing.
34:31He was genuinely drowning in regret.
34:33That almost made it worse.
34:35Lucian.
34:35You still don't understand what you had.
34:38I was never your Luna because you became king.
34:41You were only ever king because I chose to stand beside you.
34:45I turned my back on him.
34:46Walked toward the warm lights of the estate.
34:49Lock the gates.
34:50If he sets foot on this land again, you have my permission.
34:54I'm permission to treat him accordingly.
34:56The iron gates slammed shut.
34:58The sound cut through the rain like a verdict.
35:00He was still screaming my name when I walked through the front door.
35:04I didn't hear that.
35:05That door was never opening again.
35:08Celeste's death.
35:09The report arrived this morning.
35:11History repeated itself down to the last attack.
35:14Marcus both turned to there was nothing left to go.
35:16And they carried her body out of his estate.
35:19Someone noted the scent still on me.
35:21I looked when she'd snatched from my hands in that shot.
35:24She was wearing it when she died.
35:27Lucian heard the news runs away.
35:28He didn't grieve.
35:30He didn't rage.
35:31Good.
35:31She watched me fall and ran straight to another man's bed.
35:35I gave up everything in this life for her.
35:38And that's how she repays it?
35:39He beat his fists against the wheels of his chair until his knuckles bled.
35:44I never should have poisoned Zara.
35:45I never should have chosen Celeste over Zara.
35:47I was still holding the report when I heard the bedroom door.
35:51I crumpled the paper in my fist.
35:53Kyle walked in.
35:54I turned toward the window.
35:56The sun had gone down.
35:57I was just...
35:58Before I could finish, he reached out and took the crumpled note from my hand.
36:03He smoothed it flat.
36:04Then lifted it to the light.
36:06Then he lowered it and looked straight at me.
36:09You're not blind in the way you let everyone believe, are you?
36:13My throat closed.
36:15I couldn't find a single word.
36:17I looked into his soul.
36:18It was burning.
36:20It was sharp and a small orange.
36:23Don't I deserve the truth?
36:25I marked you.
36:26I made you my mate.
36:28I would have protected you regardless.
36:30Blind, wolfless, it didn't matter.
36:32But for a year, you let me believe I understood you.
36:36And I didn't.
36:38The blind girl in the cripple.
36:40Two people who had made an art form of being something they weren't.
36:43Standing in this room in the dark.
36:45Every mask we'd ever worn was gone.
36:47He turned for the door.
36:49And I felt something I hadn't felt in two lifetimes.
36:52Genuine terror.
36:53I threw myself off the bed and wrapped my arms around him for a while.
36:57Held on.
36:58I could feel the anger in him.
37:00But underneath it, his soul was already shifting.
37:04The orange coolant.
37:05Leading towards something else.
37:07The harder I held on, the faster it faded.
37:10My voice came out small.
37:12I pressed my face against his back and just held on.
37:15His soul turned pink.
37:17His pride hadn't moved.
37:18He was still standing there.
37:20Every muscle locked against me.
37:22But his heart had already answered.
37:24I came around to face him.
37:26Pressed my cheek against his chest and listened.
37:29His heartbeat was fast.
37:31Uneven.
37:32His soul was so pink it was almost blinding.
37:35Kyle.
37:36I steadied my voice as best I could.
37:39That wasn't the only thing I lied about.
37:41This was the secret I'd carried through two lives without telling a single person.
37:45I see souls.
37:46I can read the truth inside people.
37:49He went completely still.
37:50And I know what's coming.
37:52The werewolf world is about to burn.
37:55Thorn Harbor will be under siege.
37:58I looked up at him.
37:59In my last life, you died when the city walls fell.
38:02His breathing changed.
38:03I searched his soul one last time.
38:06Not a flicker of doubt.
38:08Not a trace of fear.
38:09Only gold.
38:11Shimmering gold.
38:13Do you believe me?
38:14I asked.
38:15He didn't answer with words.
38:16He pulled me into his chest.
38:18Both arms, no space between us.
38:21And buried his face against my neck.
38:23I believe in you.
38:27That's the only thing in this world I'm sure of.
38:29Five hours.
38:30That is what it took to dismay.
38:32I'm going to be a death.
38:33Kyle gave me the Alpha War seal and put every warrior in the pack under my command.
38:37We didn't just hold Thorn Harbor.
38:39We took the fight to the Alpha Wars fortresses.
38:41Then came the first night, the Great Siege.
38:43The boss army hit the valley.
38:45I see a black bird and wall to wall.
38:48As far as the world was seen.
38:50Kyle sat in his chair at the edge of the fortress wall.
38:53Watching it come.
38:53Then he stood up.
38:54Not in our bedroom.
38:56Not in the dark.
38:56No one could see.
38:57In front of every soul in that night.
38:59He shrugged off the heavy coat he'd hidden behind for seven years and let it drop.
39:04His bones began to crack and shift into the new world.
39:07He transformed.
39:08A massive silver wolf.
39:09He was huge, larger than any Alpha in history.
39:12His fur shimmered like liquid metal in the dark.
39:14He stood on the edge of the fortress wall.
39:16And he let out a howl that shook the very cloud.
39:19Every wolf on that field, ally and enemy alike, dropped their heads not from orders.
39:23From something older than orders.
39:25Seven years of buried power.
39:27Of swallowed rage.
39:28Of playing the broken man while the world underestimated him.
39:31He snapped his head around before the echo had died.
39:34That silver gaze cut straight through the smoke.
39:36Through the fire.
39:37Through everything between us and found me.
39:39I felt at the moment it landed.
39:41Not just a look.
39:42Something that went all the way down to the bone.
39:45Like a string he taught over two lifetimes had finally been released.
39:49Faded mate bond.
39:50He had kept his wolf locked away for seven years.
39:53The bond had been sealed with him.
39:55But now his wolf was fully awake.
39:57And everything that he held back came through at once.
40:00He shifted back.
40:01Dropped one knee on the stone.
40:03Chest healing.
40:04Hands braced against the ground.
40:06Trumbling.
40:07When he looked up at me.
40:08It was like the first time.
40:10Like he was seeing something he'd been reaching toward without knowing it.
40:13It's you.
40:14His voice was loud.
40:16It was always you.
40:19The moon goddess didn't give you to me for your gift.
40:24She gave you to me because you're mine.
40:26I felt the truth within my own family.
40:29Every piece of it clicking into place all at once.
40:31The jolt when our fingers first touched at the maiden ball.
40:34The way his hands could pull the pain and pain out of my skull.
40:37The suffocating dread every time he left the ring.
40:40I don't have a wolf.
40:41So the bond had come through quietly.
40:44A whisper where it should come from.
40:46But it had always been there.
40:48From the very first moment he reached out and touched his knee.
40:52Our blood had already made it.
40:54Take your place as Alpha King.
40:57The Grand Hall was in ruins around him.
41:00Dust still settling from the siege.
41:02And Zara shall be your Luna.
41:05Kyle didn't hesitate.
41:06No.
41:07One word.
41:08It landed in that hall that the stone dropped into stone.
41:11I'm issuing two commands.
41:13First, we are establishing a dual kingship.
41:19Zara and I rule together.
41:21As equals.
41:23The silence cracked.
41:24Impossible!
41:25There has never been a woman on that throne!
41:29Kyle stepped up onto the platform.
41:31He looked out across the council.
41:32Every face, every objection.
41:34With the kind of calm that has nothing left to prove.
41:37When Thorn Harbor was under siege, Zara stood on the front lines beside me.
41:42Every wound I took, she felt.
41:46Every sacrifice I made, she had already paid a higher price for.
41:50He brought his hand down flat on the stone table.
41:53Crack of it echoed.
41:55Without her, I'd be in an unmarked grave on the battlefield.
41:58You don't get to erase what she built just because she isn't what you expected.
42:05I am the Alpha King.
42:07And so is she.
42:08Alpha King!
42:10He leaned forward, voice dropping.
42:12If anyone here has a problem with that, step forward now.
42:15No one moved.
42:16I have spent seven years being underestimated.
42:18I have no patience left for it.
42:20Not for myself.
42:21And not for her.
42:22The bond had been a river with no outlet for years.
42:25The night the war ended, the dam broke.
42:27He marked me.
42:28The moment his teeth found the back of my neck, something detonated beneath my skin.
42:32Not pain.
42:33Or not only pain.
42:34Something that felt like being struck by lightning from the inside.
42:37My bones began to shift.
42:39I screamed.
42:40Kyle didn't let go.
42:41He pulled me harder against his chest and held on, his soul blazing gold in my sight.
42:45Steady as a thick star, an anchor in the middle of everything for me apart.
42:49Something that had been waiting under my skin for 17 years was finally waking up.
42:53It was never missing.
42:54It was just too powerful to surface I'm feeling.
42:57It needed something equally matched to call it out.
42:59I shifted.
43:00White.
43:00Pure.
43:01Absolute white.
43:02A wolf larger than any female in reported history.
43:05Her coat caught the moonlight the way fresh snow catches it from within.
43:09Kyle's silver wolf circled me.
43:11He haunts twice, three times.
43:13Then he stopped.
43:14Pressed his massive head against my neck.
43:16And let out a sound so low and so full, it barely qualified as a sound at all.
43:21The elders hadn't moved.
43:23In the old legends.
43:24The white wolf is the living avatar of the moon goddess.
43:27She hadn't walked the earth in 500 years.
43:30I had never been broken.
43:32My wolf had never been missing.
43:33She was just waiting for the one person strong enough to bring her home.
43:37Kyle shifted back.
43:38He pulled me into his lap and held me there.
43:41Both of us still catching our breath.
43:44The soul.
43:44As I looked at it, I had no words.
43:47Gold and pink.
43:48Woven together so completely.
43:50They'd become a single color.
43:52That didn't exist anywhere else.
43:54I knew from the moment you chose me at the ball.
43:59I didn't know what you were.
44:02But I knew you were something the world hadn't seen before.
44:06You were just waiting for someone to finally find you.
44:09I never let myself dream this far in my last life.
44:12I was too busy holding someone else to ever look up for myself.
44:16Now I sat at the highest seat in the council hall.
44:19Kyle beside me.
44:20Every elf were in the hands of heads.
44:23The intelligence network was mine.
44:25The land rights were mine to grant or revoke.
44:28The power I had spent a lifetime building for someone else.
44:30It was finally in my own hands.
44:32The queen's.
44:33And then they brought in Lucian.
44:35He dragged himself across the stone floor on his hands.
44:38He reached my boots.
44:39And stretched out one trembling hand toward the hem of my robes.
44:43A guard stepped forward.
44:45His sword flashed.
44:46The blade stopped an inch from Lucian's fingers.
44:49Lucian didn't even register.
44:51He just started seeing you.
44:53This isn't right.
44:54That seat belongs to me.
44:56You were my instrument, Zara.
44:59I promised to make you my Luna.
45:01Why isn't that enough for you?
45:03Get down.
45:03Help me up there.
45:05That's where I'm supposed to be.
45:06I looked at him for a long moment.
45:08I remembered the last laugh.
45:10The rebel wolves had us surrounded.
45:12He didn't reach for me.
45:13He didn't hesitate.
45:15He turned and ran.
45:16And when they caught him anyway, he offered me up to buy himself another day.
45:20And at the very end, he was the one who forced the wolf's vein down my throat.
45:24He was the one who gave Celeste my title and my burial.
45:27He threw my body to the crows.
45:29And now he was on the floor of my hall, demanding I come down and handed our back to him.
45:34I looked at his soul.
45:36There was nothing left in me.
45:38Hold him.
45:39The guards pinned him to the stone.
45:41He thrashed.
45:42He tried to bite.
45:43He screamed until his voice cracked.
45:45They forced his jaw open.
45:46And I poured the wolf's vein myself.
45:49A quick death would have been mercy.
45:50And I had none left to give him.
45:53This was something else.
45:54A slow, total erasure.
45:56First, the taste would go.
45:58Then the smell of air.
45:59Then the light, fading at the edges, dimming inward.
46:03Then sound.
46:04Then touch.
46:05Then nothing at all.
46:06A living body with no world left inside it.
46:09Trapped in the dark he had always carried.
46:10With nothing for company but his own guilt.
46:13It took a week.
46:14The guard came to me on a quiet morning and delivered the news without ceremony.
46:18Lucian was dead.
46:20Died in total silence.
46:21Total darkness.
46:23Without a single sensation to mark the end.
46:26What should we do with the body?
46:27I didn't look up for my work.
46:28Take it outside the territory.
46:30No retz.
46:32No marker.
46:33Leave nothing.
46:34I gave his remains exactly what he gave mine.
46:37Down to the last detail.
46:39The account was closed.
46:41The fire had burned down to embers.
46:43The room was almost quiet.
46:47Kyle's arms came around my waist from behind.
46:50His breath was warm and even against my neck.
46:56You went to see him today?
46:57I did.
46:59I watched a monster reach the end he earned.
47:02I leaned back into him.
47:03Are you jealous of a dead man, Kyle?
47:06A low sound in his chest.
47:08Not quite a laugh.
47:09He reached up slowly and found the knot of the silk blindfold I still wore in public.
47:13Worked it loose.
47:14Let it fall.
47:16The moonlight came through the window.
47:18Neither of us spoke for a while.
47:19Then he took my hand and guided it to his chest.
47:22Pressed it flat right above his heart.
47:24Zara, tell me what color it is.
47:25I laughed, soft, surprised by it.
47:28I closed my eyes and turned everything I had heard him.
47:30This man who gave me his trust before I deserved it.
47:33Who stood up in front of an army to unmake seven years of his own carefully constructed lie.
47:38Who fought his way to a throne he didn't want.
47:40Just so I could stand beside him on equal ground.
47:43His soul.
47:44I don't have the words for it.
47:45Even now, a pillar of gold, deep and unwavering.
47:48And running through the heart of it.
47:50A tide of pink so rich and so dark, it looked like the last light of a sunset seen through
47:54clear water.
47:55The kind of color time can't bleach.
47:57It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
48:00And I've seen a lot of ugly things.
48:02His arms tightened around me.
48:05Describe it.
48:06I want to hear it.
48:07I turned in his arms.
48:08Found his chest.
48:10Pressed my lips to the place above his heart and held them there.
48:13I don't think any language is the right words for it.
48:15I looked up at him.
48:17I have the rest of my life to try.
48:18I don't think any language is the right words for it.
48:20I don't think any language.
48:21I don't think any language is the right words for it.
48:23I don't think any language is a big language.
48:25You
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